Classical Principle Weekly
June 28, 2022
In our last essay, we featured the monumental second movement—the funeral march—from Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”. Over 17 minutes long, it poses the question of loss—of a great leader, or of a great artists or contributor to mankind, and the efforts to fill the vacuum.
The first and only concert ever given, that consisted solely of Schubert's music, was organized by Schubert himself on March 26, 1828, on exactly the one-year anniversary of Beethoven's death. For any composer attempting to pick up Beethoven's mantle, the task would be as daunting as any politician attempting the mantle of Abraham Lincoln. For those who follow the Classical Principle, art is not mere entertainment, but responsibility for the future of civilization, which depends on great art as much as it does on statecraft and science. In presenting that concert on March 26, Schubert put forth his willingness to accept the mission.
Schubert admired Beethoven. He studied many of Beethoven’s more difficult works such as the Diabelli Variations, as soon as it’s available. The opening of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy (Fantasie in C major, Op. 15, D760, composed 1822), reminds us very much of the first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53). The final movement is one of Schubert's few experiments with fugal writing, and employs the falling diminished 7th interval, characteristic of Bach's Musical Offering (BWV1079). In the Second Movement, Schubert is in a dialogue with his own inner creative processes (Listen to the audio.) All of those concerned with continuing the classical tradition, saw the continuity of not just Beethoven, but Bach through Beethoven, as the red thread to be followed. Those who complain that Bach was a composer from the Baroque period, miss his profound influence on subsequent generations. After Mozart was led to rediscover Bach at the salon of Baron van Swieten in 1782, he, and later Beethoven, supposedly both of the Classical Period, incorporated fugal and double-fugal writing in their works to an astounding degree.
FOLLOWING BEETHOVEN
In 1825, the young poet, Ludwig Rellstab, gave a number of his poems to Beethoven's assistant, Anton Schindler, in the hopes that Beethoven might set them. When Beethoven became too ill to even contemplate it, Schindler bequeathed the poems to Schubert, whom he saw as Beethoven's successor.
One of those poems, discussed last week, was "Auf dem Strom", for voice, piano, and horn (D943, composed 1828). That setting had its world premier at the March 26, 1828 concert. As noted last week, Schubert quoted the Funeral March from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony in the song.
Seven of the Rellstab poems, six by Heinrich Heine, and one by Seidl became the basis of Schubert’s Schwanengesang (Swan Song), D957, assembled by composer and publisher Tobias Haslinger with the assistance of Schubert's brother. Schubert's setting of Heine's "Der Atlas" invokes the opening of Beetoven''s sonata, Op 111. The music identifies with the image of Atlas, having to hold up the entire world.
Here is a complete recording of "Der Atlas”: https://youtu.be/27h6uzCFJ8E
The concert was meant to launch Schubert's career. He was known as a "song composer", and insisted on including his instrumental music, the most significant of which was his masterpiece, the Piano Trio in Eb, Op. 100, D 969.
FOLK MUSIC
One of the Hallmarks of the classical principle is the effort to uplift folk art. While the romantics tended to praise ancient myths, such as the Nibelungen, as superior to modern civilization, classicists not only recognized the great beauty in folk art, but also saw the possibility to transform that beauty into something sublime. Classical music is sometimes slandered as elitist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Classical music is always seeking the beauty that people know, or think they know, and take for granted; and show them riches within it that they never even dreamt of. Beauty can change, for the better. Just as such reflection can inspire us not to take songs we know as incapable of change, it also motivates us not to take ourselves or our neighbours as fixed and incapable of change..
Schubert heard this Swedish folk song at a Music Evening:
Se solen sjunker
Se solen sjunker ner bak höga bergens topp.
För nattens mörka skuggor Du flyr o sköna hopp.
Farväl. Farväl.
Ack, vännen glömde bort sin trogna väna brud.
La la la la la la la &c
See the sun is setting fast behind each mountain peak.
Ere night comes with dark shadows, you flee, sweet hope now bleak.
Farewell. Farewell.
Ah, the friend’s thoughts are no more of his fair and faithful bride.
La la la la la la la &
Se solen sjunker: https://youtu.be/d1CosPXX7m4
Schubert used this strangely depressing song as the basis for the Andante movement of his Op. 100 Piano Trio, which was also premiered at the March 26th concert. However, he used the motive of a leap up followed by a second down, and changed it into varying downward intervals, as part of a key change, to turn the music in a far more optimistic direction. How did he do that? It lies in the power of human creativity to reveal such hidden potential through discovery, and development.
The accompanying audio discussion: